By way of example, in a semiconductor device manufacturing process, there has been used a coating and developing apparatus that performs a resist coating process or a developing process on a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, referred to as “wafer”). This coating and developing apparatus includes a carrier block to which a carrier is transferred from an outside, and the carrier block includes a loading port that transfers a wafer accommodated in the carrier into the coating and developing apparatus. In order to prevent particles from being introduced into the coating and developing apparatus from the outside, a wafer transfer region at an inside of the coating and developing apparatus is partitioned off from a carrier transfer region at the outside of the coating and developing apparatus by a partition wall of the loading port. At this partition wall, there is provided a wafer transfer opening. The wafer transfer opening is opened and closed by a door conforming to a FIMS (Front-opening Interface Mechanical Standard). Patent Document 1 describes such a loading port.
FIGS. 31 and 32 are longitudinal side views illustrating examples of a loading port and show a wafer transfer opening 22 in a closed state and in an opened state, respectively. As depicted in FIGS. 31 and 32, a door 91 is moved up and down to close and open the wafer transfer opening 22, and, thus, a height of the loading port is relatively increased. Therefore, if multiple loading ports are provided to quickly load many wafers W into the coating and developing apparatus, the loading ports are arranged transversely to prevent the carrier block from colliding with a ceiling of a clean room where the coating and developing apparatus is provided. Accordingly, a footprint (occupation area) of the carrier block and the coating and developing apparatus may be increased.
In FIGS. 31 and 32, a reference numeral 92 denotes a driving unit that moves the door 91 up and down. A reference numeral 93 denotes a partition member that partitions off the driving unit 92 from a wafer transfer region 17. A reference numeral 94 denotes a connection member that connects the door 91 with the driving unit 92. At the partition member 93, there is formed a slit 95 that is vertically extended to move the connection member 94. Since the slit 95 is long, it is difficult to prevent particles generated at the driving unit 92 from being introduced into the wafer transfer region 17.
Further, a reference numeral 6 denotes a mapping unit that checks an arrangement status of a wafer W in a carrier C, and an example thereof is described in Patent Document 2. The mapping unit 6 will be explained in detail in an illustrative embodiment. Briefly, the mapping unit 6 includes a sensor unit 65 configured to detect an arrangement status of the wafer W in the carrier C before the wafer W is unloaded from the carrier C. The sensor unit 65 is provided at a front end of a supporting arm 64. The supporting arm 64 is movable up and down and a base side of the supporting arm 64 is rotatable around a horizontal axis. The sensor unit 65 is moved back and forth between the wafer transfer region 17 and the inside of the carrier C by the rotation of the base side.
Since the door 91 is moved downwards from the wafer transfer opening 22 as described above, the supporting arm 64 is located at a standby position in an upright posture above the wafer transfer opening 22 as depicted in FIG. 31 in order not to interfere with the door 91. Then, after the wafer transfer opening 22 is opened, the supporting arm 64 is moved down, the sensor unit 65 is introduced toward a lower side within the carrier C, and then, the sensor unit 65 is moved up within the carrier C. During the upward movement, the sensor unit 65 performs optical detection on the wafer W. FIG. 32 illustrates the sensor unit 65 after the upward movement is completed.
However, in order to return the supporting arm 64 to the standby position depicted in FIG. 31 after the optical detection is performed, the supporting arm 64 needs to be moved downwards from a raised position within the carrier C depicted in FIG. 32 to prevent interference with a partition wall 18 and the carrier C. Then, the supporting arm 64 needs to be rotated to have the upright posture and moved upwards. If a door 91 is configured to be moved downwards with respect to the wafer transfer opening 22, arrangement of the mapping unit 6 is limited and an operation of the mapping unit 6 is limited accordingly. Therefore, it is difficult to reduce a time required for checking an arrangement status of the wafer. Patent Documents 1 and 2 do not describe various problems occurred when a door is moved upwards and downwards and cannot solve the problems.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. H10-125763    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2008-108966